Sushi is a Japanese food with over a thousand years of history and tradition. It has become the most visible example of Japanese cuisine in New Zealand and other Western Countries.
Sushi began as a way of preserving fish. The raw, cleaned fish was pressed between rice and salt by a heavy stone for a few weeks. After this period, the stone was removed and replaced with a light cover. A few months after that, the fermented fish and rice were considered ready to eat.
It was not until the 18th Century that a chef by the name of Yohei decided to serve sushi in its present form. He eliminated the fermentation process altogether. It is said that the use of rice wine vinegar is reminiscent of the earlier fermentation tradition.
Sushi comes in at least three forms. An Osaka variation, which is probably the more elaborate form, is prepared traditionally by pressing rice in wooden boxes. The more familiar form of sushi to Westerners comes from Edo, the old name for Tokyo, and consists of hand-rolled rice. This particular style is called nigiri sushi.
Maki sushi is the form of sushi most familiar to us. Maki sushi is a “rolled sushi” with narrow strips of different ingredients (seafood, meat, chicken, crisp vegetables, or pickles) layered on a bed of vinegar rice and spread on a sheet of nori or seaweed. This form of sushi is very popular because it can be tailored to suit a variety of tastes where just about any ingredient can be rolled into the centre from crisp vegetables, strips of fish, meat, chicken, egg or even avocado.
Although sushi is now very popular with Europeans, no easy way has been devised to make what is essentially a very simple product. Sushi is after all just strips of fish, or even meat rolled in rice and wrapped in crisp, thin sheets of dried seaweed or nori. The filling generally also contains wasabe (Japanese horseradish), usually as a paste, although this is not necessary.
As intimated earlier although sushi is a simple dish it is extra-ordinarily difficult and messy to properly prepare. There has been a long felt need to be able to prepare sushi quickly, with a minimum of mess and with a consistent size and texture. The foregoing invention attempts to overcome the above disadvantages, and to provide an apparatus which is durable in construction, reliable and efficient in operation, easy to clean, and relatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture and assemble.